The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

Title/Author: The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab
Publisher/Date published: Hyperion, August 2nd 2011
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.
If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.
And there are no strangers in the town of Near.
These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.
But when an actual stranger — a boy who seems to fade like smoke — appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.
The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.
As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know — about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy."

OMG! OMG! OMG! Seriously, I LOVED this book! And I'm so glad I did, because I've been pining for it for a year! Seriously, it was amazing.

And let me tell you why: this book read like a fairytale. Everything flowed and was beautifully worded and gosh, I just fell in love with the writing. I wanted to slow down reading because I was so loving the words. This almost never happens to me, usually when I'm this excited about a book I'm reading so fast because I want to know what happens next. And I did want to know what happened next with this one, but I also wanted to just savor the words.

And then there's the part of me who will always be a little girl loving fairytales, lying awake at night hoping the scary part won't come to life and wishing for the fairytale prince to save her if it does. And I got to indulge in that part of myself and it was wonderful.

I loved Lexi, she's a wonderful caring girl who feels a huge amount of responsibility and appears to be one of the only sensible persons in the town of Near. Gosh, the reactions to a stranger in Near were just medieval (I get that was sort of the point, but still). I loved her little sister as well, she was so CUTE!
And Cole, how could you not love Cole, all tortured amazing boy-ness of him! I just wanted to give him a hug.

I even liked The Near Witch, who was sort of the villain, but with a very good reason. Very nasty good reason. Very evil thing that happened to her. I loved how I could understand her being angry and wanting revenge.
The only persons I didn't like: the men. Seriously, all of them were just cavemen and hello, sexual harassment on one of the boys' part! Seriously! Not cool.

Anyway, the point is: I LOVED this book, it was amazing. You should read it. You should follow Victoria Schwab on her blog, cause she's totally nice and funny and there's a video there of her dressing up as a cupcake :) But most of all: YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK!!

My rating: 5+ stars